R. Bybee and A. Gardner (2006) "High School Biology & the Physics First Movement" The American Biology Teacher, Vol. 68, No. 3 (Mar., 2006) pp.134-138 University of California Press
The Physics First Movement was a proposed idea in education that would require teachers to follow the natural heirarchy of teaching science. The heirarchy begins with a deep understanding in Physics followed by an overview of Chemistry and Biology. Prior to that, students were traditionally taking Biology, Chemistry, then Physics. The Physics First Movement requires students to take Physics during their first year of High School followed by Chemistry then Biology. It was believed under this movement that students would better understand the physical processes that are taught in Chemistry if they had a prior understanding of the laws of motion and other laws that are introduced in Physics. Also, lessons learned in Chemistry and Physics would again be revisited by students when they take Biology the following year. This model would thereby, strengthen the connections between science content areas.
Although this model looked promising on paper, it did not take into account that many state exams are administered to 10th graders and include information about Biology. This proposed a new problem with the Physics First Movement. The article that I read addresses this problem and suggests ways that schools can still strengthen the connections across science subjects while also covering the content that students will be tested on.
The one model that I liked the most was one in which students will be taught:
Earth Science, Chemistry and Physics during their Freshman year
Biology, Earth Science, Physics, and Chemistry their Sophomore year
Biology, Earth Science and Chemistry their Junior year
science electives their Senior year
This model allows students to take an array of different Science courses while still maintaining a strong foothold on Physics and Chemistry. This model also introduces high school Freshman to Biology which they will be expected to know on the state standardized tests.
When I was a High School student 7 years ago, my courses were very disjointed. Once a course was completed, contents from it were not revisited in the following courses that I took. Once I began college, I discovered that the concepts and processes that I had learned in my Freshman Biology course in High School were nearly forgotten. The adaptation to the Physics First Movement that was proposed in this article, keeps the purpose of the movement a priority by following the natural heirarchy of science. However, the adaptation that the author provides also strengthens the goal of the movement which was to increase the connections between major science content areas.
In conclusion, I agree with the main goal behind the Physics First Movement. However, I do not necessarily feel that the sciences should be tought disjointedly as proposed by the movement. I think that a multitude of sciences should be introduced each year with a varying emphasis on specific areas throughout the year.
The Physics First Movement was a proposed idea in education that would require teachers to follow the natural heirarchy of teaching science. The heirarchy begins with a deep understanding in Physics followed by an overview of Chemistry and Biology. Prior to that, students were traditionally taking Biology, Chemistry, then Physics. The Physics First Movement requires students to take Physics during their first year of High School followed by Chemistry then Biology. It was believed under this movement that students would better understand the physical processes that are taught in Chemistry if they had a prior understanding of the laws of motion and other laws that are introduced in Physics. Also, lessons learned in Chemistry and Physics would again be revisited by students when they take Biology the following year. This model would thereby, strengthen the connections between science content areas.
Although this model looked promising on paper, it did not take into account that many state exams are administered to 10th graders and include information about Biology. This proposed a new problem with the Physics First Movement. The article that I read addresses this problem and suggests ways that schools can still strengthen the connections across science subjects while also covering the content that students will be tested on.
The one model that I liked the most was one in which students will be taught:
This model allows students to take an array of different Science courses while still maintaining a strong foothold on Physics and Chemistry. This model also introduces high school Freshman to Biology which they will be expected to know on the state standardized tests.
When I was a High School student 7 years ago, my courses were very disjointed. Once a course was completed, contents from it were not revisited in the following courses that I took. Once I began college, I discovered that the concepts and processes that I had learned in my Freshman Biology course in High School were nearly forgotten. The adaptation to the Physics First Movement that was proposed in this article, keeps the purpose of the movement a priority by following the natural heirarchy of science. However, the adaptation that the author provides also strengthens the goal of the movement which was to increase the connections between major science content areas.
In conclusion, I agree with the main goal behind the Physics First Movement. However, I do not necessarily feel that the sciences should be tought disjointedly as proposed by the movement. I think that a multitude of sciences should be introduced each year with a varying emphasis on specific areas throughout the year.